Tablet Pro Documentation

Getting Started

Quickstart

Hello and welcome to Tablet Pro! First off, we’re going to assume you’ve already installed all of the necessary components for the features you want to use, as described in the Installation section. Not sure where to start?
  • If you want to get more out of your touch screen’s real estate, check out the features of TouchZoomDesktop, which gives Windows the ability to zoom and pan in any application using your keyboard, mouse, or touch screen.
  • If you want to use virtual keyboards, mice, and gesture controls, check out TouchMousePointer; and if you’re ready to start customizing your panels/pads, check out the Layout Editor in the Tablet Pro Manager.
  • If you want to want to purchase a License, check out some tutorial videos, or make custom layouts for your TouchMousePointer pads, check out the Tablet Pro Manager.
Otherwise, use the navigation links on the left of the page to find a particular section you might be interested in, or use your browser’s search function (Ctrl+F in most cases) to find specific terms you might be looking for.

Installation

Tablet Pro is a combination of three distinct components – TouchZoomDesktop, TouchMousePointer, and the Tablet Pro Manager. TouchZoomDesktop and TouchMousePointer can be downloaded by going to the Download page and signing up for the mailing list. A link to download the software will be sent to the email address you provide. Tablet Pro Manager can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

Licensing

The software is free to use for a fourteen (14) day trial period, and if you would like to continue using Tablet Pro and support future development a License can be purchased from within the Tablet Pro Manager app. Once a license has been purchased, you will receive free updates for the duration of the major version (2.00 through 2.XX). Upgrading to the next major version (2.XX -> 3.0) will require the purchase of a new license.

14 Day Challenge

When signing up for the mailing list on the Downloads page, you have the option to sign up for the 14 Day Challenge. If you opt for the challenge, for the duration of the trial period you will be sent an email every other day with helpful tips, tricks, and videos introducing you to functions and features of Tablet Pro.

TouchMousePointer

TouchMousePointer gives you all the power of a keyboard and mouse – using only your touchscreen. With customizable Modes that can turn your screen into a trackpad – and control Windows with touch gestures – or use Pads with custom widgets to give you access all your frequently used keyboard shortcuts. To activate TouchMousePointer, click the Toolbar Button in the Taskbar.
If you don’t see the icon, right-click the Taskbar, go to Toolbars, and make sure TouchMousePointer is checked.

Modes

Each Mode has customizable interfaces that can have keyboard-replacement buttons, trackpad/mouse emulators, and/or gesture shortcuts. They all behave slightly differently, which make them best suited for different workflows.

Fullscreen

The Fullscreen mode is optimized for workflows on a touchscreen using only touch input. It turns the entire touchscreen into a virtual trackpad, and adds the ability to bind touch gestures to actions that can do anything from launch applications to adjust the brightness. The entire screen can have customized widgets attached to it via the Layout Editor. In fact, this mode can be thought of as being a transparent, fullscreen Frame widget.
Because the screen acts as a trackpad, there will be a disconnect between your finger and the mouse cursor. This means you will not be able to, for example, tap directly on a file to select it. If you would like to keep the default Windows behavior for touch input, but still want access to the gesture shortcuts, check out Float or Side modes.

Float

The Float mode features a floating panel that can be moved around the screen. It contains customizable widgets that can be used as keyboard shortcuts or trackpad emulators, and touch gestures similar to Fullscreen mode. It is optimized for workflows where access to Window’s default touch behavior is necessary for interacting with the system or applications, but the ability to use TouchMousePointer’s widgets and gestures is desired, albeit to a limited degree.
Gesture shortcuts will only work inside of a Frame widget inside the panel itself – outside of the panel Windows will handle touch input.

Side

Side mode is the same as Float mode, except that the panel is docked to side of the screen and cannot be moved. In the Settings the side of the screen to which it is docked (left/right) can be changed.
Also similar to Float mode, gestures shortcuts will only work inside of a Frame widget inside the panel itself – outside of the panel Windows will handle touch input.

Artist Pad

The Artist Pad mode gives access to a panel with customizable widgets, similar to Float and Side mode. There are no gesture shortcuts however, as this mode is optimized for a pen-and-touch workflow. There are actually three different panels that you can switch between (small-medium-large), either in the Settings or with a widget.

Panels (Pads)

A Panel (or Pad, used interchangably) is a window with widgets that you can use to perform actions in windows. These widgets can be buttons that act like virtual keyboard keys, shortcuts to quickly swap between different layouts/presets in TouchMousePointer, or virtual trackpads. Each Mode has at least one panel, described below.
Mode Panels
Fullscreen Fullscreen mode has three panels, Fullscreen, Fullscreen with L/R (h), Fullscreen with L/R (v) The first is an invisible panel that essentially contains a single, fullscreen Frame widget. The second is similar to the first, but with the inclusion of Left-click and Right-Click buttons on the left, and a Wheel widget on the right. The final panel is similar to the second, except the buttons are on the top of the screen instead of on the left.
Float Float mode only has a single panel, aptly named Float
Side Side mode has four panels: Left, Right, Top, Bottom. Left and Right have no widgets by default and act like a Frame widget, Top and Bottom are laid out with L/R click buttons and a Frame widget.
Artist Pad The Artist Pad mode has three panels: Large, Medium, Small. The only difference between them is their width.
In addition to the Mode panels, there are additional panels that can be used in conjunction with most of the above modes. These panels (and those unique to the modes) can be customized using the Layout Editor.

Assist Pad

The Assist Pad is a floating panel that provides access to additional customizable widgets. It can be opened using gesture controls as described in the Settings for Fullscreen mode, or using a panel widget, as seen in the gif above.

Game Pad

The Game Pad puts customizable controller-like buttons in the corners of the screen, emulating an Xbox controller.

Quick Panel

The Quick Panel hides off the top of the screen, and pops out when a tap or click is near it. Once revealed, you can click and drag to reposition where it sits on your screen.
Button Description
Set the Mode to Float
Set the Mode to Artist Pad
Set the Mode to Fullscreen
Open the Layout Editor
Show/Hide the Game Pad

Settings

The Settings window for TouchMousePointer is divided into six main tabs, with four sub-tabs under Settings. Most of the settings in this window determine how TouchMousePointer works in relation to Windows, in regards to touch/gesture inputs, the modality of panels/pads, cursor speed settings, etc. Changes can be reset by clicking the Reset… button at the bottom of most tabs, which will restore the values for each setting in that tab. To restore all the settings to default state, check out the Restore Settings section below.

Fullscreen

Single Touch

With a single finger you can use your screen like a mouse trackpad. You can tap (or double tap) to click, tap to show where the mouse cursor is (sonar), or tap to click and drag.
Gesture Action(s)
Tap Sonar or Click. If set to Click, Double Tap will be disabled.
Double Tap Sonar or Click. If set to Click, Tap will be disabled.
Long Tap Right Click
Tap + Hold Click and then drag (for moving files or highlighting text).

Multitouch – Simple Assign

When using multi-touch gestures, if you select Simple Assign, you can assign a single action (or shortcut) to each gesture (four total, one for each finger count from two to five). The available options are available below.
Action # Fingers Gesture Description
Show Assist Pad 2-5 Tap Show/Hide the assist pad.
Show Artist Pad 2-5 Tap Show/Hide the artist pad.
Wheel 2-3 Swipe Up/Down Emulate using a mouse wheel.
R-Click + Wheel 2-3 Swipe Up/Down Emulate using a mouse wheel while holding down the right mouse button.
M-Click + Wheel 2-3 Swipe Up/Down Emulate using a mouse wheel while holding down the middle mouse button.
L-Click + Drag 2-3 Tap + Hold Emulate click and drag (for moving files or highlighting text)
M-Click + Drag 2-3 Tap + Hold Emulate click and drag using the middle mouse button.
R-Click + Drag 2-3 Tap + Hold Emulate click and drag using the right mouse button.
Move Pad 2 Tap + Hold With two fingers spread fairly far apart, pull them in to switch to Float Mode.

Multitouch – Gestures

If you want more gesture shortcuts (a total of thirty six – four finger combinations with nine gestures each), select Gesture instead of Simple Assign. Click the Gesture… button to bring up the window pictured above, where you can assign a different action to each of the available gestures. While most gestures are self explanatory, some require further explanation and are outlined below. Note that not all shortcuts are available for all gestures (for example you can’t click with a Pinch, and you can’t adjust the brightness up and down with a tap).
Action Description
Transparent/Opaque Buttons Toggle the visibility of any panel buttons (if your Layout has any). The opacity of the buttons can be changed using the Opacity of Buttons option, described in the General section below. If you don’t see any buttons, it means there are none in your current Layout, or the visible opacity is set to 0%.
Shrink Mode Collapse the invisible Fullscreen panel into a small translucent widget . Tap and drag the widget to move it around the screen, or tap on it to restore the normal state. While in the collapsed state, Windows will take over gesture input.
Volume, Brightness When assigned to any gesture that has an opposite action (ie swipe up/down, or rotate left/right), you can gesture in one direction to increase the value, and the opposite direction to decrease the value.
TouchZoomDesktop Quicklaunch Will open TouchZoomDesktop and automatically zoom in one level. If you zoom all the way out (0% zoom) TouchZoomDesktop will be closed. If you have Auto OFF TouchMousePointer enabled in the TouchZoomDesktop Settings, TouchMousePointer will be disabled while zoomed in, and will be re-enabled when you zoom all the way out.
Any Key… A dialog will appear asking what modifiers (Win, Ctrl, Shift, Alt) and key you want to assign. Enable modifier keys by clicking the checkboxes, and pick the key either by choosing it from the dropdown list, or clicking the Input Key button and clicking the desired key on your keyboard. To re-open the dialog, click the ellipses (…) button to the right of the dropdown menu in the Gesture window.
Run… A dialog will appear asking you to pick an executable file. Navigate to either a .exe (program), .lnk (shortcut to a program), or if you want to get fancy, a .bat file, which will be run when you perform the specified gesture. To re-open the dialog, click the ellipses (…) button to the right of the dropdown menu in the Gesture window.
Layout… A dialog will appear asking you to pick a Layout Preset file. This layout will get loaded and change your currently open session.

General Options

These general options affect the overall behavior of Fullscreen mode.
Option Description
Exclude Taskbar When enabled, Windows will handle touch input in the Taskbar, allowing you to tap direcly on items to click on them.
Button Opacity Set the opacity of panel buttons when visible. By default there aren’t any buttons, but they can be added in the Layout Editor.
Auto Hide When enabled, buttons will go invisible when the mouse cursor is over them.
Disable Toggle (Ctrl, Shift, Alt) When disabled, clicking a modifier widget will keep it active until it is pressed again. This is useful if, for example, you want to Ctrl+Click on multiple items. Enable this option if you want a modifier widget to act as a single press of the keyboard button.
Relative Mode Create a translucent virtual mouse on screen. This panel will follow your finger, and you can tap the L button to left-click, the R button to right-click, or tap and drag in the middle to use a virtual mouse wheel. The second option in the dropdown is a Legacy feature, and not recommended for use.
Allow Simultaneous Operation of Pen and Touch This feature is for older versions of Windows, and allows for the use of touch gestures as well as a touchscreen compatible pen/stylus. It is recommended that this feature be disabled when using Windows 10 or newer.
Layout
  • All Pad – The entire screen acts as a trackpad.
  • with L/R and Wheel – Two transparent buttons will be on the right that act like left-and-right mouse buttons, and the right side of the screen can be used as a middle-mouse-wheel.
  • with Wheel – Allows you to use the right side of the screen as a middle-mouse-wheel.
Edit Layout with Store App Open the current Layout in the Layout Editor
Load Preset Load a Layout Preset file from disk.

Float/Side

Single/Multi-touch

This mode has the same gesture controls as Fullscreen mode, which you can refer to for a breakdown of available options. There are two options that are unique to Float Mode, however:
Option Mode Description
Force Move Pad Float Tap+Drag on the Float panel to move it around the screen. Pinch In/Out in the panel to resize it. If the panel’s size exceeds a certain amount (which can be controlled from the Layout Details tab) it will switch to Fullscreen Mode.
with Ctrl Key Float When enabled, moving/resizing the Float panel can only be done when the Ctrl key is pressed.

General Options

These options control the general behavior of the panel and it’s position when in Float/Side mode. To switch which part of the screen the Side mode is attached to, go to the Mode tab.
Option Mode Description
Opacity Float, Side You can control the opacity for the panel separately for Float and Side mode. 100% is a fully opaque panel, and 0% is fully transparent.
Allow Click Behind Float Mode Float When enabled, this allows you to click on items behind the panel with the cursor.
Docking Side When enabled, the panel is docked to the side, meaning all other applications will be resized to fit the remaining screen space. If disabled, the panel will act as an overlay, and other applications will be obscured behind it.
Simultaneous Pen and Touch Float, Side This feature is for older versions of Windows, and allows for the use of touch gestures as well as a touchscreen compatible pen/stylus. It is recommended that this feature be disabled when using Windows 10 or newer.
Layout Float This dropdown provides several options for available widgets in the Float panel. Default shows the layout you create in the Layout Editor. The other options are pre-defined layouts that cannot be edited, and include basic controls.
Layout Side Same as Layout (Float above, except for the Side mode panel.
Size… Float Set the x/y position and size of the Float panel, in pixels. An x/y position of (0,0) is the top left of the screen, and the panel is always square so Size specifies height and width. If you move/resize the panel with touch controls, these settings will be overriden with the final position/size the panel was at when TouchMousePointer was closed.
Layout (Side-Top/Bottom) Side (vertical) Same as Layout (Side) above, except for the top/bottom panels that are used when the screen is oriented vertically.
Edit Layout n/a Open the current layout in the Layout Editor.
Note that the Layout Editor might not open with the correct panel selected. For example, if you click this button (from Float/Side Settings), the Layout Editor could open with the Artist Pad (Medium) open for editing. Change the panel you want to edit using the Layout dropdown menu in the Layout Editor.
Load Preset n/a Load a Layout preset file from disk.

Artist Pad

General Options

There are a couple options for the artist pad, mainly dealing with how it’s displayed, position, and compatibility with pen drivers.
Option Description
Opacity Control the opacity of the panel. 100% is fully opaque, 0% is fully transparent.
Font When enabled, allows you to use a custom font instead of the default. Click thebutton to the right of the checkbox to open up the system Font window, which will let you pick from the list of installed fonts.
Background Image Enable to select a custom image to use for the background of your panel. Click the Browse… button to select an image on disk to use as your background. Select Tile or Fit to change how the image is displayed if it’s not the exact size of the panel.
Currently only png images are supported.
Position Choose whether the panel is displayed on the Left or the Right side of the screen, and if it is Docked. If the panel is Docked, other applications will be resized to fit the rest of the screen, if it is not then applications can go behind the panel and will be obscured.
Simultaneous Pen and Touch This feature is for older versions of Windows, and allows for the use of touch gestures as well as a touchscreen compatible pen/stylus. It is recommended that this feature be disabled when using Windows 10 or newer.
Simultaneous Pen and Touch (Wacom) Same as Simultaneous Pen and Touch, except specifically designed for use with Wacom devices.
Disable Toggle (Ctrl, Shift, Alt) When disabled, clicking a modifier widget will keep it active until it is pressed again. This is useful if, for example, you want to Ctrl+Click on multiple items. Enable this option if you want a modifier widget to act as a single press of the keyboard button.
Layout There are three available options for the panel for this mode, Large, Medium, and Small. Each is editable in the Layout Editor.
Edit Layout Open the current layout in the Layout Editor.
Note that the Layout Editor might not open with the correct panel selected. For example, if you click this button (from Artist Pad Settings), the Layout Editor could open with the Fullscreen open for editing. Change the panel you want to edit using the Layout dropdown menu in the Layout Editor.
Load Preset Load a Layout preset file from disk.

Game Pad

The Game Pad puts several customizable controls on the screen for playing games. While the visibility and location of the controls cannot be changed, how the controls function in Windows can be changed to act like a joystick, a controller, or a keyboard.

Mode

Option Description
vJoy Mode Use vjoy drivers to control your game. The Game Pad’s on-screen controls will use the vJoy drivers to act as a virtual Joystick device. When in this mode, most of the button options are set in vjoy, not in TouchMousePointer.
Xbox Mode This mode will use virtual drivers to emulate an Xbox controller on windows. In this mode controls cannot be customized as they are a 1:1 connection to the xbox controller (ie the “X” button on the screen corresponds to the “X” button on an Xbox controller).
The link to the drivers for this mode seem to be broken.
Keyboard Mode This mode allows you to map each on-screen control to a keyboard key. No additional drivers are required to use this mode.

Assign

In this section you can change what function each on-screen control will drive. When in vJoy mode you can set which Axis or Button # each control going to drive, but the actual functionality of those controls are set in vJoy itself. When in Xbox mode you can’t change what each on screen control drives, as it’s a 1:1 mapping to an Xbox controller. If you’re familiar with an Xbox controller, you’ll notice the layout of the Game Pad very closely mimics that of the controller. When in Keyboard mode, you can assign each control to a keyboard key. In the case of the L/R Stick controls and D-pad, four keys are mapped, one to each of the four directions (up, down, left, right).

Show/Hide

In this section you can control which on-screen controls are visible when the Game Pad is active. If you find that you don’t need or want all of the controls, you can hide them here.

Pointer

There are several options for changing the visualization and behavior of the mouse cursor when using the virtual trackpads, for example when in Fullscreen/Fload/Side modes or when using a mouse emulator widget in a panel.

Visualize Pointer

These options allow for changing the visualization of the mouse cursor when using TouchMousePointer.
Option Description
Fake Cursor When enabled, TouchMousePointer will draw a proxy cursor over the system icon. This is helpful as Windows may lag behind when drawing the cursor when TouchMousePointer is active. There are several sub-options:
  • At Working – only draw the proxy cursor when manipulating the cursor with a virtual trackpad.
  • Any Time – draw the proxy cursor even when not using TouchMousePointer, or a virtual trackpad.
  • Zoom – Increase the size of the proxy cursor icon.
  • Picture – Choose whether you want the proxy to only draw the default arrow icon, or mimic all system mouse icon options (hand, text input, arrow, etc).
  • Auto-hide – When At Working is enabled, the proxy cursor will disappear after the number of seconds specified.
Track Line When enabled, TouchMousePointer will draw a line that will trail the cursor, increasing visibility.
  • At Working – only draw the proxy cursor when manipulating the cursor with a virtual trackpad.
  • Any Time – draw the proxy cursor even when not using TouchMousePointer, or a virtual trackpad.
  • Effect – Change the color and falloff of the line.
Sonar
This option has no apparent affect and may be deprecated in a future release.

Pointer

These options control how quickly the cursor moves across the screen, and how far you must move your finger before TouchMousePointer starts to move the cursor.
Option Mode Description
Pointer Speed Float, Side Change the speed of the cursor as it moves across the screen.
Pointer Speed Fullscreen Change the speed of the cursor as it moves across the screen.
Move Distance Travel Distance Determine the number of pixels after Tap+Drag before TouchMousePointer starts to move the cursor.

Wheel

When using gestures to emulate a mouse wheel action, these settings will adjust that behavior.
Option Description
Swap Scroll Direction Invert the scroll direction. For example, normally Swipe Down will scroll up, this will reverse that so that Swipe Down will scroll down.
Speed If the application in focus intperprets mouse wheel updates linearly, you can scale the speed with this setting.
Step If the application in focus interprets mouse wheel updates as discrete steps, you can change the number of steps-per-update here.

Keyboard

The options in this tab have no apparent effect in Windows 10 or newer, and may be deprecated in a future release.

General

This tab contains system options for TouchMousePointer.
Option Description
Auto Show Pad at Sign In When enabled, TouchMousePointer will be active when Windows starts.
Taskbar Icon Choose which icon is used to display in the Taskbar when TouchMousePointer is active.
Auto-Restore Icon has no apparent effect and may be deprecated in a future release.
Taskbar Notification Icon
This feature is redundant as the Toolbar Icon has all the same functionality, and may be deprecated in a future release.
Quick Panel There is only one option for the Quick Panel, Size, which determines how tall (in pixels) the tab is when the Quick Panel is hidden off screen. If you want an easy to see tab, set it to 20, if you want it completely invisible, set it to 1.
Process Priority
Has no apparent affect on Windows 10 or newer systems.
Animation Enable or Disable the animation when switching to Fullscreen and/or Float Mode.
No Snap to Side Mode If Enabled, if you drag the Floatpanel to the edge of the screen, TouchMousePointer will automatically switch to Side mode.
Keep Cursor Position
This has no apparent effect and may be deprecated in a future release.
Disable Auto Arrange
This has no apparent effect and may be deprecated in a future release.
Output Log Output a log file detailing what TouchMousePointer is doing while it’s running. Useful when encountering bugs, as the log files can be sent to the developers to aid in debugging problems.
Startup Delay If Auto-Show At Sign-In is enabled, this is how many seconds until TouchMousePointer is activated after sign-in.
Backup Settings to File Save the current settings (from all tabs) to a file, that can be sourced again at any time. When you click the Reset button on any tab page, it will restore the settings to those saved in the last opened preset file.
Restore Settings from File… Open a Settings preset file previously saved to disk. This can be the default settings that ship with TouchMousePointer, or settings you have previously saved or downloaded from the Community Assets.

Language

In this tab you can change which language is used for all the menus and settings tabs in TouchMousePointer. This doesn’t affect which font is used for the widgets in pads/panels. Additional languages can be installed by selecting the Add/remove language… option in the dropdown menu, which will open the Language Dialog. To install a TouchMousePointer language file, browse to the file on disk using the Browse… button. If you haven’t downloaded any language files, you can get them from the Community Assets, by clicking the Get from Web link in the dialog. To uninstall a language file, select the language from the dropdown then click Uninstall. You can’t uninstall the default languages (English, Japanese).

Mode

Current Mode

The current mode can be changed between the four available modes by clicking on the radio buttons: Here you can also change which side of the screen the Side mode panel will be docked to. The options are Top/Bottom/Left/Right, and each has a different set of widgets that can be customized in the Layout Editor.

Auto Disable

TouchMousePointer can also be allowed to continue running, or be temporarily disabled, when using certain Windows features by selecting Keep Enable, or Auto Disable, respectively. If you want to specify TouchMousePointer’s state on a per-feature basis, click the Customize… button.

Layout Details

This tab mostly contains redundant controls for changing the Layout for different mode panels, but collected into a single convenient location. Unique controls are detailed below.
Option Description
Layout of Assist pad This is the only place where you can choose the layout of the Assist pad. Default uses the layout defined by the Layout preset, which can be changed in the Layout Editor. The other options cannot be edited.
Size (Assist Pad) Click this button to open a dialog where you can adjust the size of the assist pad.
Use User .ini File When enabled, pads/panels will use the Layout preset file specified. To change the preset file used, click the Browse… button to select a file on disk. When disabled, pads/panels will use the generic Layout that ships with TouchMousePointer
Ratio Fullscreen/Side This option determines the size (measured as % of screen) at which the Float panel will automatically trigger a switch to Fullscreen mode.

About

In this tab you can check the currently installed version of TouchMousePointer and copyright information. You can check for the latest update by clicking the Check for Update button, or activate/upgrade your License by clicking the Activate/Upgrade button, which will open the License window.

Context Menu

Right-click the Taskbar icon or inside any pad/panel to bring up a context menu for TouchMousePointer.
Option Description
FullScreen, Float, Side, Artist Pad The current mode. Click on another option to switch to that mode.
Close Disable the active mode and hide it’s uniquep panels. Will still have access to the Quick Panel, Game Pad, and Assist Pad.
Game Pad Toggle the visibility of the Game Pad
Quick Panel Toggle the visibility of the Quick Panel
Monitor This option is only available when you have multiple screens/monitors, and determines which screen TouchMousePointer will operate on (it can only work on one at a time).
Layout Open the Layout sub-menu (see below)
Settings Open the Settings window.
About Shortcut to go directly to the About tab in the Settings window.
Cancel Close the menu.

Layout Sub-Menu

This menu is accessed from the Layout menu option, above.
Option Description
Edit Layout Open the current preset in the Layout Editor
Load Preset Open a TabletPro preset file from disk.
At the bottom of the menu is list of recently opened preset files.

TouchZoomDesktop

TouchZoomDesktop allows you to zoom and pan your screen, making the most of high-resolution or small screens, where tiny icons or fonts can be an issue. The zoom operation can be controlled using a keyboard, mouse, or touch input. To activate TouchZoomDesktop, click the Toolbar Button in the Taskbar.
If you don’t see the icon, right-click the Taskbar and go to Toolbars > TouchZoomDesktop and make sure it’s checked
By default, the zoom can be controlled by the following:
Input Action
Keyboard Press the “+“key to zoom in, and the “–” key to zoom out.
Mouse Press and hold the “Ctrl” key while using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Touch Pinch out to zoom out, and pinch in to zoom in.

Settings

The Settings window for TouchZoomDesktop can be accessed via the Context Menu on the Toolbar icon. The window is divided into tabs with options for the Keyboard, Mouse Wheel, and Touch inputs, as well as Anti-aliasing, Language, General settings and License settings.

Keyboard

Here you can customize what key combinations can be used to control the zoom level of the desktop.
It’s not recommended to set the key combination to a commonly used application shortcut, such as Ctrl+S or Ctrl+Z
Option Description
Enable Keyboard Zoom Allow zooming in/out with the keyboard.
Ctrl+ When enabled, the Ctrl key must be pressed in order to zoom with the Zoom In and Zoom Out keys.
Shift+ When enabled, the Shift key must be pressed in order to zoom with the Zoom In and Zoom Out keys.
Alt+ When enabled, the Shift key must be pressed in order to zoom with the Zoom In and Zoom Out keys.
Zoom In Use the dropdown menu to select the keyboard key to use to zoom in.
Zoom Out Use the dropdown menu to select the keyboard key to use to zoom out.

Wheel

Customize what key modifiers are required in order to control TouchZoomDesktop with the mouse wheel.
It’s recommended to have at least one modifier key active, to prevent blocking the default mouse wheel behavior inside applications.
Option Description
Enable Wheel Zoom Allow zooming in/out with the mouse wheel.
Ctrl + Wheel When enabled, the Ctrl key must be pressed to zoom with the mouse wheel.
Shift + Wheel When enabled, the Shift key must be pressed to zoom with the mouse wheel.
Alt + Wheel When enabled, the Alt key must be pressed to zoom with the mouse wheel.

Touch (Pinch)

Option Description
Enable Touch Zoom Allow zooming in/out with a Pinch gesture.
Time to Default Touch
This option has no apparent effect.
Mode Touch to Touch will behave like a normal touch screen, while Touch to Mouse will trick Windows into thinking your touch input is a mouse device.
1 Finger Swipe When zoomed in, if Scroll Screen is enabled, you can use a single finger to Tap+Drag to pan around the screen. You can always use two fingers to pan around the screen.
2 Fingers Tap When not zoomed in, you can tap with two fingers to zoom in one level if Quick Zoom is enabled. When zoomed in, you can have a two-finger tap either perform a Right Click action, or return the desktop to normal with Cancel Zoom.
2 Fingers Pinch If Full Screen is selected, pinching will affect the entire desktop. If Bounds zoom is selected, then a window will be drawn between your fingers which will be zoomed, like picture-in-picture. In Bounds Zoom mode, clicking outside the window will close it.
3 Fingers Tap If Show Touch Keyboard is enabled, a three-finger tap will show/hide the Windows touch keyboard.
3 Fingers Pinch Options are the same as 2 Fingers Pinch, above.

Anti-Aliasing

This slider determines how much “jitter” there is when zooming in and out. All the way to the left results in a quick, responsive zoom that has the potential for high jitter or noise, and all the way to the right results in a slower, less responsive zoom with less jitter. Play around with the slider value until you find a setting you’re comfortable with.

General (Startup)

Option Description
Auto-On at Sign In If enabled, TouchZoomDesktop will be active on Windows startup.
Auto handling touch when showing touch keyboard
This option has no apparent effect.
Auto Off TouchMousePointer If enabled, TouchMousePointer will be disabled when TouchZoomDesktop is enabled.
If both TouchZoomDesktop and TouchMousePointer are active, TouchZoomDesktop will take capture any gestures that are active in both. For example, if both applications are using 2-Finger Pinch, TouchMousePointer’s action will be ignored.
On Store/Universal App Choose whether TouchZoomDesktop should be enabled when using Windows features such as the Start Menu, Windows Store app, etc. If set to Auto Disable, TouchZoomDesktop will be re-enabled when the conflicting app is closed.
Taskbar Toolbar Icon If Taskbar Toolbar Button is enabled, a Toolbar icon will be permanently featured in the Taskbar. You can change the behavior of this button when tapped from the dropdown to the right of Tap, and have it either switch TouchZoomDesktop on/off, or perform a Quick Zoom.
Taskbar Notification Area
Because this feature cannot be disabled, it should be removed from the Settings window in a future release.
Charm Button 1/2
This is a legacy feature for Windows 8.1 and may be deprecated in a future release.

Language

Here you can specify what language to use for the menu and Settings window for TouchZoomDesktop – the only options available currently are English and Japanese.

Version (License/About)

This tab has information regarding the current installed version of TouchZoomDesktop, a button to check for a more recent version of the TouchZoomDesktop software, and the status of your License. Status:
  • Not Active – TouchZoomDesktop is still in the trial period, or the trial period is over and a License must be purchased. The button at the bottom of the page will say Activate/Upgrade and will take you directly to the License Window.
  • All features activated – A valid license is currently installed. The button at the bottom of the page will say Details… and take you to the License Window, where you’ll have the option to disable your License.

Context Menu

Right-click the Toolbar button to bring up a context menu for TouchZoomDesktop, with options for enabling/disabling the different input types and opening the Settings window.
Option Description
On/Off Toggle TouchZoomDesktop on or off. Same as clicking the Tasbar icon.
Keyboard Zoom Toggle keyboard functionality on or off. Can also be disabled in Settings.
Wheel Zoom Toggle mouse wheel functionality on or off. Can also be disabled in Settings.
Pinch Zoom Toggle pinc gesture functionality on or off. Can also be disabled in Settings
Settings Open the Settings window for TouchZoomDesktop.

Tablet Pro Manager

The Tablet Pro Manager is an app that you can download from the Windows App Store. It has three main features, as seen in the image above. Getting Started will send you to the 14 Day Challenge sign up page. Layout Editor will open the, you guessed it, Layout Editor, which allows you to customize the many pads/panels for TouchMousePointer. Purchase will open up the License/Purchase tab, where you can check your unlocked features and purchase a full license from the Windows Store.

Layout Editor

The Layout editor gives you the ability to customize the Panels/Pads inherent to TouchMousePointer. A Layout describes the size and child widgets for all panels, excluding the Game Pad which can be customized in the TouchMousePointer Settings.

Layout Preset

A Layout can be saved to, or loaded from, a Layout Preset File. You can save a preset file by using the Save button on the Toolbar. A preset file can be loaded into the Layout Editor for editing by using the Open button on the Toolbar, from the Edit Layout button in the TouchMousePointer Settings Window, or from the Layout Sub-menu in the TouchMousePointer Context Menu. A preset file can be loaded and applied in TouchMousePointer either from the Context Menu or the Settings Window.

Toolbar

The blue bar at the top of the Layout Editor window displays the name of the currently opened preset file. If no file is currently opened for editing, (untitled) will display instead. Below that is a row of buttons with many of the features you’ll need for editing your panel.
Button Description
Create a new Layout.
Open a Layout Preset file on disk.
Save the current Layout to a Layout Preset file. Only available if editing an existing Layout Preset – if you’ve created a brand new Layout, use Save As
Save the current Layout to a new Layout Preset file on disk. Use this option when you have created a new Layout, or are editing an existing Layout Preset and don’t want to overwrite the original
Create a new widget. This button only exists if no widget is selected, otherwise it’s the Clone button.
Copy the selected widget. This button only exists if a widget is selected, otherwise it’s the Create button.
Delete the selected widget. If no widget is selected this button will be disabled.
If the selected widget is obscured by another widget, bring the selected widget to the front.
If the selected widget is obscuring another widget, push the selected widget to the back.
Change the preview to be small – in some instances, can be thought of as seeing the panel un-docked.
Change the preview to be large – in some instances, can be thought of as seeing the panel docked.
Press to toggle between different grid overlays in the Layout Window. Useful for organizing your widgets.
Below the row of buttons is a dropdown menu where you can select the panel you want to edit, and controls for changing the aspect ratio of the panel. Note that not all panels allow you to change the aspect ratio.

Widget Editor

With a widget selected in the Layout Window, you can change it’s properties in this editor. From top to bottom, the options are as follows
Control Description
Target The dropdown contains a list of the widgets by their id number. This id number is used internally, and can’t easily be matched to the widget, so it can be ignored.
Type This unlabelled dropdown determines what type of widget this is. The complete list of available widget types can be seen in the Widgets table.
X, Y, W, H Set the X and Y position of the widget in relation to the top-left corner of the panel, and width and height (in grid units).
The correlation between grid units and pixels is unknown.
Ctrl If the widget Type is a keyboard or trackpad action, perform the action with the Ctrl key pressed.
Shift If the widget Type is a keyboard or trackpad action, perform the action with the Ctrl key pressed.
Alt If the widget Type is a keyboard or trackpad action, perform the action with the Ctrl key pressed.
Toggle If the widget Type is a keyboard key, enable this option to keep that key pressed until the widget is tapped again.
+1 Sec This option is handy for pen+touch interactions. If you need to click on screen while holding down a particular key (for example Alt+Click for the color picker in Photoshop), this will keep the assigned key pressed for one second.
Win If the widget Type is a keyboard or trackpad action, perform the action with the Ctrl key pressed.
Change Button Name Most widgets come with a default label, for example the keyboard key Alt will simply be labelled “Alt”. Enable this option and enter a new name if you want to overwrite the default. If instead of a text label you would like to use an icon for the widget, use the dropdown menu under the text input to select the icon you’d like to use.

Widgets

There are many different types of widgets, each of which can perform different functions. The available options are detailed below. . It can also be used to move undocked panels (Float/Assist) around the screen using Tap+Drag.
Type Example Widgets Description
Trackpad
  • Frame
  • Frame(with L-Drag)
  • Frame(with M-Drag)
  • Frame(with R-drag)
 This widget acts like a mouse trackpad found on most modern laptops. Tap and drag inside the widget to move the mouse cursor around on screen.
Mouse Button
  • Left Button
  • Middle Button
  • Right Button
 This widget type acts like a mouse button, performing a click wherever the cursor is located.
Mouse Wheel
  • Wheel (vert / M-btn)
  • Wheel (vert / no M-btn)
  • Wheel (horz)
 This widget acts like a mouse wheel, which is useful for scrolling through lists or web pages. The vertical orientation with the middle-button is the most common.
Close Close This widget will close TouchMousePointer, as as choosing the Close option from the Context Menu or clicking the Toolbar Icon.
Menu Menu This widget will bring up the TouchMousePointer Context Menu
Move Grip Move Grip This is essentially a blank area that can be used to move around undocked panels.
Minimize Minimize Collapse the panel into a single floating widget. Click the widget again to restore the panel. If the panel is docked (Artist Pad/Side), it will become undocked when minimized.
Keyboard Modifier
  • Ctrl
  • Shift
  • Alt
  • Win
 Emulates using a modifer key on the keyboard. Unlike other keyboard keys, modifier keys can only have their Toggle state modified in the TouchMousePointer Settings, and only for certain modes.
Keyboard Key
  • A-Z
  • F1-F12
  • Num0-Num9
  • Space
  • etc…
 Emulates the use of any key on a standard keyboard. This type of widget can be used with the Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Toggle, +1 Sec, and Win modifier checkboxes.
Show Panel
  • Assist
  • Art-Small
  • Art-Medium
  • Art-Large
 Show the panel. With Assist you can tap the widget again to hide the panel. When using Art-Small/Medium/Large, it will switch the Mode to Artist Pad.
Keyboard Keyboard Show the Touch Keyboard.
This only works when in tablet mode.

Layout Window

In this window you can preview your panel and its widgets. The panel is represented by the black rectangle, and the rest of the desktop is in blue. With a widget selected, controls will appear to change that widget’s size and position. Tap+Drag from the center of the widget to change it’s position, or Tap+Drag from one of the edges (the red border) to scale the widget in that direction.
If a widget is outside the bounds of the panel, it will not be visible nor will you be able to use it when the panel is active in TouchMousePointer.

Purchase

In the purchase tab you can see which features are unlocked based on your License. To actually purchase a License check out the License Window.

License Window

The License window can be opened from the Settings window for either TouchMousePointer (via the About tab) or TouchZoomDesktop (via the Version tab). In the settings window, you can purchase a license from the Windows Store, or activate features using a license/bonus code, or through a settings file.
The option Activate by exported settings file… is no longer supported and will be deprecated in a future release.

Windows Settings

There are various other settings in Windows that you may want to set in order to get the most out of TouchMousePointer and TouchZoomDesktop. Because the performance of Windows can vary greatly depending on which version of windows you have, and which tablet or laptop it’s running on, it’s recommended that you test changing the settings outlined below until you find which ones work best on your system.

Pen and Touch

Accidental Palm-Rejection

When using Pen and Touch in TouchMousePointer (for example, when in Artist Pad Mode), some versions of Windows may incorrectly ignore the pressing of buttons in the pad when using the pen, as it considers it palm rejection. To fix the issue, from the Windows menu, type in “Pen” and open up the Pen & Windows Ink settings window (or go to Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink), and change the first setting, Choose which hand you write with from Right Hand (the default) to Left Hand. The change should be applied automatically.

Disable Right-Click

When using the pen for drawing or in use in 3d-applications, it is often beneficial to disable the hold-for-right click that’s enabled by default in Windows. This is especially true if you have a pen with side buttons (such as the Surface or Bamboo pens) that can be used to right-click. To disable the hold-for-right-click setting, go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Pen and Touch > Change Tablet Pen Settings. In the first section, Pen Actions, click on Press and hold then click the Settings… button, and in the window that pops up, disable the checkbox Enable press and hold for right-clicking. Click Ok out of both windows to apply the change.

Keyboard

If you notice that the virtual keyboard doesn’t show up when trying to launch it from the gesture controls or from a widget, it might be due to a Windows setting. One possible fix would be to go to the Windows menu and type in “Typing”, or go to Settings > Devices > Typing, and at the bottom enable Show the touch keyboard when not in tablet mode and there’s no keyboard attached.
If you have a keyboard attached and Windows is in Desktop mode, the virtual keyboard will never display. This is a limitation of Windows 10 (and possibly older versions).

Run Applications

One of the most powerful features of TouchMousePointer is the ability to change settings on the fly, or run external applications. These can be run using either gestures, a styus with programmable buttons, or using a combination of keyboard widgets and custom Windows shortcut files.

Gestures

In the Fullscreen mode settings, you can assign the Run… action to a gesture to launch any *.exe or *.lnk (shortcut) application, such as Photoshop or Chrome. You can also use the Layout… action to load a Layout Preset file, to change the available widgets and controls availble in your Modes/Pads. This is useful if, for example, you’re switching from Photoshop to ZBrush and want to use a custom Artist Pad you’ve made tailored for that application. To enable more advanced functionality, check out Custom Shortcuts or Batch files.

Pen Buttons

If you have a pen/stylus with programmable buttons (such as the Surface line of pens), you can launch applications by going to Settings > Pen & Windows Ink > Pen Shortcuts. For each available action (for example, the Surface Pen has three: Click, Double-click, and Press and Hold), you can launch a custom application. To launch an application or load a TouchMousePointer settings file, set the action to Launch a classic app, then click the Browse button to select the program/application you want to load. For example, if you want to launch TouchMousePointer using the pen button, set the path to “C:\Program Files\TouchMousePointer\TouchMousePointer.exe” and hit Apply. Now anytime you click the button, it will Launch TouchMousePointer. For more advanced functionality (for example opening TouchMousePointer and set to a specific Mode), check out Custom Shortcuts or Batch files

Widgets

While widgets don’t seem like they have the ability to run applications in the same way that gestures do, there is a way to do it, albeit indirectly. First, create a shortcut as described in Custom Shortcuts. Then, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties, then go to Shortcut Key, and set it to whatever key you like.
Note that the key combination will always be Ctrl+Alt+”key”, this is a limitation of Windows.
With your shortcut key set, now create a keyboard widget in the Layout Editor that is set to the same key combination (ie Ctrl+Alt+”key”), and it will run the application!

Custom Shortcuts

In the sections above, you can see how to run standard applications, such as Photoshop, a web browser, etc, but what if you want to change the properties of TouchMousePointer itself? This can be done simply enough by customizing some shortcuts! To create the default Shortcut, go to “C:\Program Files\TouchMousePointer” (your path may be different, if you changed the install location) and right-click on the TouchMousePointer.exe file, select Create Shortcut, and save it wherever you prefer. Once it’s been created, right-click on the shortcut file and go to Properties, and in the Properties window edit the Target: field to the following (edited text is marked in bold):
“C:\Program Files\TouchMousePointer\TouchMousePointer.exe” /show /artistpad-medium
If you double click on this shortcut, it should open TouchMousePointer, and set the Mode to Artist Pad! Shortcuts can also be used in this way to change from one Layout Preset to another, for example if you have a custom Artist Pad for Photoshop, but want to switch to another one for ZBrush, you can change the Target: to the following (changes marked in bold)
“C:\Program Files\TouchMousePointer\TouchMousePointer.exe” /show /artistpad-medium /layout C:\path\to\layout.ini
…where C:\path\to\layout.ini should be changed to the path for a layout file saved from the Layout Editor. These custom shortcuts can be run using the gesture, pen shortcut, or widget methods as described in the sections above.
A comprehensive list of all possible command line options has not been compiled as of the time of this writing. A full list of options should be made available in the near future.

Batch Files

So, you know how to run regular windows applications, and how to change TouchMousePointer settings using shortcuts, but what if you want to do both? What if you want to open Photoshop, and launch TouchMousePointer set to the Artist Pad Mode, and with your custom “Photoshop.ini” Layout Preset file set? Now you need to learn how to create Windows batch (*.bat) files. A batch file is a text file that, when run, executes code in the Command Prompt (also known as the terminal or shell). Shortcut files are similar to batch files, except that they only execute a single line of code (see the examples in the Custom Shortcut section) which 99% of the time is just to run an application. Batch files allow you to execute multiple lines of code in a single action. To create a batch (*.bat) file, open the text editor of your choice (either Notepad or Wordpad is recommended, Microsoft Word is NOT recommended) and as an example, copy/paste the following code:
C:\Windows\explorer.exe “C:\Program Files\TouchMousePointer\TouchMousePointer.exe” /show /fullscreen
…and save the file anywhere you prefer as TouchMousePointer_example.bat (note the .bat file extension, this is critical). If you double click this file, a new File Browser window should open, and TouchMousePointer should also be open in Fullscreen Mode!
For those unfamiliar with writing batch scripts, you’ll note that in the second line, the path to the application is in quotes (“”). The reason for this is because there is a space in the path (between Program and Files), and for Windows to process the path correctly it needs to be contained on the quotation marks.
These custom shortcuts can be run using the gesture, pen shortcut, or widget methods as described in the sections above. When trying to find the .bat file in the Gesture window, change the filter from Executable (*.exe, *.lnk) to Any files (*.*) to see the files. When trying to find the .bat file from the Pen Shortcuts window, batch files won’t show up in the browser but you can type in the file name and it will find it. To use a batch file with a widget, you need to create a Shortcut with a custom hotkey that points to the batch file. With batch files, the possibilities are endless. In the future, expect to find more examples in the Forums and Community Assets.

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